Balfour Beatty has been awarded contracts totalling almost Â£200m to build and maintain schools in London and central Scotland.

The UKâ€™s largest construction and engineering company also said that it was involved in the bidding process for a Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contract worth about Â£1bn with Hertfordshire education authorities.

Publicly-funded building work has offered a boon to many of the UKâ€™s larger construction companies during the past 18 months, as commercial and residential contracts have dried up.

Balfour, along with a handful of other large-scale, multi-operation construction groups, has been particularly successful at winning BSF and other state-sponsored contracts.

The company, which earlier this year added Â£1.2bn to its Â£12.8bn order book following the acquisition of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the US services group, is working on a range of education contracts, worth about Â£900m.

Competition for this kind of work is relatively low as there are only a few companies big enough to deliver projects on this scale.

As well as providing a healthy and long-term cash flow, building companies are attracted to public sector work, such as schools, hospitals and prisons, as it often comes with the added benefit of a long pipeline of maintenance and facilities management contacts.

However, Balfour warned that there could be tough times ahead as the predicted drop-off in UK public spending takes its toll on some of the larger construction companies, which are heavily dependent on government-funded contracts.

No one really knows what kind of reductions there will be in spending next spring, but it would be wrong to say that everything will stay the same and the cuts wonâ€™t effect them.

London,Â the city’s controversial Shard project, theÂ fantastic lookingÂ “vertical city” under construction right now. It was designed by Renzo Piano, one of the world’s leading architects.

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The dramatic, glass-covered tower -Â to reach 1,106 feet at its pinnacleÂ – will contain 87 stories of offices, apartments, restaurants, bars, shops and five-star hotel rooms, according to TimesOnline.

The project has its critics, the story notes. Britain’s leading conservation group, English Heritage, calls it “a spike through the heart of historic London,” the article says. Supporters, however, see it as a symbol of recovery for London that will revitalize the run-down heart of old London, the story says.

You’ll definitely have an opinion either way once you see the computer-generated renderings on the Shard’s official website. Be sure to check out the nifty aerial views.

If you go to the construction site in London Bridge Quarter today,Â all you willÂ see is aÂ hole in the ground the size of 25 Olympic swimming pools, according to the article.Â But from now on, the Shard will rise at a rate of about two stories per weekÂ for the next year, the story says. It’s set to open in May 2012.

By the way, before construction began, developers signed a deal with Shangri-La Hotels to lease floors 34 to 52 for a luxury hotel, according to a prior Times article.

So if you have been contemplating purchasing this software in the near future it may well be worthwhile you placing your order prior to the New Year. We are told that any orders placed before January 1st 2010 will be sold at the old price, thus saving Â£55.00.

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Construction contractors in the UK who are owed an estimated Â£250 million by Dubai developers are still holding their breath after the Abu Dhabi bailout announcement, according to a leading industry body.

In anticipation that about $5.9 billion of the total $10 billion rescue will go towards the payment of the Gulf stateâ€™s construction and other trade debts, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), which represents some of the UKâ€™s largest contractors, said that the success of the handout would depend on the cash being deployed quickly.

Nelson Ogunshakin, chief executive of ACE, told The Times: â€œWhile the amount of money that should go towards construction debts is encouraging, the question is how quickly it is used and what will be the priorities for where the money will go. It is early days yet.

â€œWe encourage payment as soon as possible. We need to keep the pressure on to ensure projects continue to go ahead. Some companies are now getting close to the point where they will be in difficulties with their own short-term financial position unless they receive payment very soon.â€

UK-based construction companies including Balfour Beatty, Carillion and WS Atkins, the engineering consultancy, all have operations in Dubai, albeit scaled back over recent months.

The problem of late payments first emerged in Spring this year, according to ACE, with some contractors chasing the same debts for more than six months. The total amount outstanding owed to the Associationâ€™s members has fallen from Â£400 million to Â£250 million over the period, with around 30 per cent of all contractors still pursuing payments.

The majority of construction firms remain reluctant to discuss the problem of delayed repayments despite yesterdayâ€™s bailout, fearing that they will jeopardise future relationships with clients. However, a spokesman for Atkins said that it is â€œconfident that the Middle East market will recoverâ€ and pledged to maintain its presence in the region as the liquidity issues are resolved.

ACE said that Dubaiâ€™s debt problems should act as a warning sign for contractors who plan to work for sovereign-backed developers in future.

Mr Ogunshakin said: â€œThere are lessons to be learned from this situation for anyone entering into contractual relationships with quasi-sovereign backed private sector clients on how those contracts are dealt with when there are issues of default. We hope that in the future other organisations, in whatever country, bear those lessons in mind.â€

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About The UK Construction Blog - www.ukconstructionblog.co.uk

Welcome to The UK Construction Blog, a place where contributors are able to post news, comments, products and relevant information about the UK Construction Industry. We update the blog daily with latest news and information related to the Survey, Design and Construction in the Building Industry and anything relevant.